Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are terrorist organizations, and as such cannot be in charge of the Gaza Strip after the war, said former U.S secretary of state Mike Pompeo last week.
Speaking at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Milwaukee, the former CIA director said, “It cannot be that the government that exists there after this is controlled by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, each of which are controlled by terrorists and underwritten by the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, Iran.”
The RJC’s “salute to pro-Israel elected officials” took place on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention and drew House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Steve Daines, the Montana senator who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Scott Walker and Kristi Noem, the governors of Wisconsin and South Dakota respectively, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) also attended.
“The world cannot expect that the Jewish state will allow weapons to be smuggled again across the Egypt-Gaza border, which will require either an Israel Defense Forces presence along the Philadelphi corridor or some other mechanism to half the flow of arms into the enclave,” said Pompeo.
That language mirrored recent remarks attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With regard to a possible change in U.S. policy on Iran and its nuclear program should Donald Trump be elected in November, Pompeo said, “We have democracy. Every four years we’re going to have an election. It is what it is.”
He noted that the Biden administration had freed up $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets, essentially as a quid pro quo for the release by Tehran of six American hostages.
“Today, there are more Americans held than before we paid them $6 billion,” he said. (The Islamic Regime currently holds five U.S. hostages).
The House speaker addressed the gathering, proclaiming the Republican Party to be the only “true pro-Israel party in America” and chastising Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who, he claimed, had delayed an invitation to Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.
Extra law enforcement will protect the Capitol during the Israeli prime minister’s scheduled address on Wednesday, said Johnson. (Netanyahu was also scheduled to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden, reportedly at the White House, but that may be in question after the latter tested positive for COVID last week.)
Abbott, the Texas governor, said from the dais that “we shouldn’t have a Republican Jewish Coalition. There should be an American Jewish Coalition.”
Colombian-American businessman Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this November, told reporters that his foreign policy vision would be “supportive of the U.S. having a leadership position in the world.”
In the weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, Israel did not need additional American aid, said Moreno. “I’m not supportive of giving countries money to countries that hate us,” he added. “We’re giving tons of money to the Palestinian Authority. That’s ridiculous.”
He also criticized the $230 million that the Biden administration spent on a temporary Gaza aid pier. The Pentagon recently announced that the pier, which required repair and disassembly several times, had completed its mission.
Moreno said the pier operation was “disgusting.”
“We’re not going to give money to countries that hate us or countries that are on the terror watch list or harbor terrorists,” Moreno added. He called the U.N. Relief and Works Agency a “total disaster” and said Washington should defund the United Nations “as long as the U.N. continues to be sympathetic to terrorism.”
